Monday, February 4, 2013

(This is Mark Vickery substituting for Sheraz Mian while he is away this morning.)

It's not just Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats who don't like Mondays. (Geez, how old am I, anyway?) Following Friday's strong gains which pushed the Dow past 1400 for the first time in 5 years -- even though there was a weaker-than-expected non-farm payroll number Friday morning -- futures have fallen below the 1400 level in the pre-market this morning.

Friday's jobs report did show some market-pleasing upward revisions from previous months, which helped boost the market during the last trading session. And Eurozone issues have lain fairly dormant as of late, removing a resistance barrier that has been rather persistent over the past few years. But with the FTSE dipping a bit in Europe today and some psychological resistance to maintaining the 1400 Dow level, futures have slipped in this morning's pre-market.

There doesn't seem to be much weighing on sentiment either way ahead of normal Monday trading. OK, there's a report of political corruption in Spain ("What?!") and a promise from Italy's Berlusconi to cut taxes if re-elected ("No way!"). But this is small potatoes relative to news we've gotten from Europe in the past.

Oracle ( ORCL - Analyst Report ) is expanding through the acquisition of Acme Packet ( ) for $1.7 billion, or a 22% increase over Friday's share price. So you're loving this Monday if you owned the small-cap gear maker.

Also, some select Super Bowl ad buyers made there most of the Big Game's technical malfunction last night (not to be confused with a "wardrobe malfunction;" it was Beyonce who provided halftime entertainment, not Janet Jackson) by utilizing Twitter during the game's lights-out downtime to win themselves millions of dollars in free advertising. Tweets from Oreo ( MDLZ - Snapshot Report ) , Tide ( PG - Analyst Report ) , Audi ( VLKAY ) and other companies showed their social media savvy by pumping the "Twittersphere" with ads while football fans -- heck, everybody -- awaited the return of the hotly contested matchup.

Earnings season begins to enter its back-stretch this week. We've seen relatively strong results, although massive downward revisions earlier in Q4 have a lot to do with this. That said, there is little resistance to a bullish market in a general sense, although investors may need to weather some near-term bearishness today. Ah, Mondays.

Mark Vickery
Senior Editor